Canadian companies continue to benefit from a strong earnings growth backdrop, especially in domestic facing sectors of the economy. Demand for new bond issuance remains exceptionally strong, highlighted by the recent all-time record number of buyers1 for a 10-year bond issued by Telus Corporation. In a world of a growing stock of negative-yielding debt, demand for high-quality, I believe positive-yielding bonds should continue to be well supported.

The payment sector has been the darling of Wall Street the last few years, and it continues to be an active space with several mega-mergers. Only four months into 2019, the payment sector already reached US$85 billion of merger and acquisition announcements – almost doubling the full-year record of US$49 billion in 2018.1 I expect the trend to continue.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) met last week and clearly telegraphed that it will no longer be “patient” and that it is leaning toward loosening monetary policy. Why? Fed Chair Jay Powell said trade developments and global growth concerns are on the mind of the central bank. As I look into the second half of the year, those two items are key to my outlook as well – and I believe the willingness of central banks to become more accommodative could be a positive development for stocks.

The Toronto Raptors are the 2019 NBA Champions. They went from being underdogs to beating the reigning champions in six games. This win has captured the attention of long-term fans and bandwagoners alike and one of the main protagonists has been Kawhi Leonard, the Raptor’s elusive star who has consistently been the difference maker throughout the entire playoffs. One thing that stands out about Kawhi is his demeanour: he appears emotionless. The Wall Street Journal analyzed 254 shots taken by Kawhi throughout his career in the last five minutes of close games and in 78% of those shots, Kawhi had no reaction and in the instances when he did react, the reactions were muted.1 The same can be said of missed shots where Kawhi shows little sign of being rattled.

All eyes will be on this week’s U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting — especially the statement (whether the central bank will retain its “patient” stance) and the “dot plot” (which charts the outlook for interest rates). The June 18-19 Fed meeting is very important because market expectations have gotten so dovish recently. And with risks rising, many investors recognize that once again the Fed stands between them and a more challenging stock market environment.

According to Plato’s account of his mentor’s trial, Socrates stated “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I think this is a pretty good motto, so I spent the past nine months reviewing and evaluating my investment process to ensure that I haven’t picked up any bad investment habits.